Want to see what scootering looks like in Japan?

These guys really seem to know how to have a good time!

Still working hard- on multiple projects!

I didn't even put up an end-of-week post last night due to all the hubbub going on this weekend. The eldest boy and his GF showed up, laundry baskets in hand, about 5 yesterday afternoon and so we were wrapped up with them all evening.

He approves of the Tempo. He took it out for a short drive and played with all the controls for a bit and he thinks it will be just fine. Its still not ready for inspection as the shoulder harness isn't repaired. I had to buy a plastic track from Ford and it won't be here until tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to get that system working shortly and the car out of my driveway and into the boy's parking space.

I've sanded and painted and sanded and primered the gas cap door for the scooter and finally got a satisfactory coat of gloss black paint applied just tonight. The plastic had really been scratched up with the initial sanding and it took much more effort than I expected to get it painted. And because I'm trying to paint in the laundry room because its too cold in my shop, keeping dust specks out of the shiny black paint has really been a challenge, causing a couple extra chances to sand and repaint to get it right.

Sleek Black Beauty's front tire is half painted with a very shiny, almost chrome finish. I tried to paint the 2nd half tonight and just couldn't get all the dust wiped off, so it needs redone tomorrow night. Then I can begin putting the whole scooter back together but I still need to order the color matched paint to fix the body scratches before I put everything back together.

The cylinder head I needed for the little scooter arrived today from another Scoot Dawg forum member, so that scooter needs to be put back together too!

Para-Ordnance advised me a couple weeks back to replace the recoil spring assembly in my Wart Hog to try to resolve the feeding problems that it has exhibited previously. Brownells had the parts and those arrived today too, so I got those parts swapped out in between everything else tonight. Surprisingly, the old recoil spring was easily 1/4" shorter than the new one! I think I might have solved this gun's problems if the spring had collapsed so badly. Now to the shooting range to try it out!

And I've done laundry and a little house cleaning over the weekend as well as everything I've already mentioned. The BSU and I saw a movie, but it gets its own post. I had coffee with Carol on Sunday morning and worked all day at Powder Mountain on Saturday. Other than that, I haven't done a dang thing lately!

Scooter fiend makes the Big Show!

That scooter fiend would be Steve, proud and diligent author of The Scooter Scoop blog. He's got a terrific new job as Italjet's Sales and Marketing manager for the USA.

How cool is that? To say I'm jealous of his success in an industry he so obviously cares so much about would be putting it very mildly. His new job sounds terrific and I'm excited to see what Steve will bring to the industry. I just wish I could manage to travel to the Dealer Expo next month to shake his hand and buy him a beer or two.

Instead of an old motorcycle-

Maybe I should just build a bigger scooter with this chassis from Scootster. Then I could take off and go for rides with my buddies that have big bikes. I do think some scooter styled body panels might be called for though, similar to the Torpedo.

Another exciting week in Utah

NOTE: This post is bound to ramble around a bit, so hold on tight or jump off now before it gets speeded up.

So, its Sunday morning and I'm making my end of the week roundup post. I don't know what that means except that I'm delaying heading out to the shop. I could take the laptop out there to post and I might take it out there later, but right now I'm inside, at the dinner table where I can watch the Mormons headed to Sunday School and witness meetings and watch the 2 remaining hummingbirds that missed the memo that it was time to head south.

Go see 3:10 to Yuma. That is, go see it if you want to watch a gritty, western story of a busted down cattle rancher trying to save his ranch and earn the respect of his sons, a stagecoach robbing, Pinkerton killing bad guy and his gang of cuthroats and the adventure that brings them all together in a violent shootout waiting for the train that will take Ben Wade to the Yuma prison. Russell Crowe plays Ben Wade, the evilist bad guy in Arizona and Christian Bale is Dan Evans, the down on his luck rancher that signs on to escort Wade to the prison train to earn enough cash to save his ranch. It is an old west shoot-em-up of the finest tradition and I really liked it.

The scooter's still broke and I'm going out to work on that next. I think I found a bit of dirt plugging a tiny passageway yesterday and maybe that will fix the carburetor problem. We'll see. I made an appointment to take it into a shop for carb tweaking but its 3 weeks of good riding season in the future, so I'll keep trying to get it right myself.

The scoot's going to have to go, once I do get it right, if the job searching takes me into Salt Lake for employment. Its no good for that type of distances and highway speeds, so next year, it will need to be upgraded- dang!

Writing about appointments reminds me, I have 2 coming up. One is for some lumps/scabs on my head that aren't attributable to me running into things. I see a dermatologist tomorrow. The following week I see the same orthopedic doc that removed my tailbone a number of years ago, about my aching left shoulder. I don't know what I did to it, but its been hurting at least 3 weeks now and its not getting better. It hurts to reach back to get my seatbelt, it hurts to pull a t-shirt on over my head and reaching out to push a store door open really hurts. The BSU says its my rotator cuff come undone. Whatever it is, I'm most unhappy with the circumstance because no matter what- it is bound to screw up our upcoming cruise and ski season immediately behind that.

Baseball season in Ogden is over for the summer- dang again. Our Raptors play just 90 days for their season and it starts late and ends early. The spouse and I attended the last 2 homegames, Thursday and Friday night.

Thursday night's game was a treat because I had a coupon for free tickets and I upgraded to reserved seats for just 5 bucks each. Then, at the souvenir stand, all hats were half off and I bought this one to replace add to my collection. And not only was the price half off, but the non-too-bright young girl behind the counter, who first couldn't figure out 50% of $15, also couldn't make change and I discovered an extra 5 spot in my change after I got to my seat!

For Friday night's game there were no reserved seats available and so, for the first time, we had to sit on the bleachers with the rest of the unwashed masses. I was reminded of the dance scene in the movie Titanic, down in the steerage section of the boat with all the poor folks that couldn't afford the tickets to the ballrooms upstairs. In spite of the crowding and constant moving about of folks in front of and on the bleachers, everyone seemed to be having a great time. And it was a great night of baseball, even if out guys couldn't beat the Owlz one last time before the season ended.

Job hunting is progressing nicely. I've had a couple responses already and more to submit resumes to- Carol this means to you, and I don't want to say much more than that right now. I'm less stressed now that I'm doing something instead of just thinking about it, so that's a good thing.

And now, I'm going to my shop. I've got 6 pounds of coffee to grind and bag, a scooter to mess with and guitar practise to get started with again!

Some Days Weeks its Just Not Worth Gnawing Through the Restraints

Its been tough here the last couple weeks folks. There just seems to be so much going on here that I don't have time for everything and blogging seems to be taking the brunt of my business. COuld I have a couple more hours everyday for dedicated blogging time? Please?

The boy's depot repair/mod barn for his Tracker that is my carport has been emptied out and cleaned up. He worked all weekend and into Monday before he finally got everything back together. The Tracker's now got a turbocharger pressurizing the intake system and boosting its horsepower. There's no guessing how long the motor will last before the boost blows it up but I really should start a death pool for this hapless little truck. I spent part of the weekend running parts for him and overseeing his work and making certain that he got all the pieces back under the hood. He still needs to get a complete exhaust system welded up but I guess he will do that up in Logan.

But the carport's cleaned up and all the tools are put away so that's finished and I'm glad for it.

My scooter's still in my shop waiting for me to complete a carburetor swap to a slide style with a powerjet. I've been had to build a bracket to hold the choke cable and I still need to re-install the throttle cable which is a major effort because it runs from the handlebars through the cowling, under the floorboards and into the engine compartment. So its taking a couple days and I'll finish it maybe by the weekend.

I did something last Saturday that I haven't done since 1996 and I had so much fun, I'm going to do it again this Saturday. I went fishing! Kenny took me to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and we caught a cooler full of carp. That's right, we caught carp! We hoped to catch some catfish but they weren't biting and the carp were, so we caught them. Kenny's planning to try them in his smoker to see if he can make them tasty and edible. This Saturday we're going to Willard Bay to try to catch catfish again and maybe some Wipers. Wipers, if you don't know are a hybrid Striper and white bass that is a popular game fish out here. It was good fun to go sit in the sun, bait some hooks with squirming nightcrawlers and feel a fish at the end of my line. I'm looking forward to this weekend's trip!

The job is eating my ass right now and I'm not going into great detail but I've been under the intense scrutiny of both my government and company bosses. It all has to do with my big modification program that had stalemated for a bit, to the dismay of the command folks that hoped to be installing the mod on the jets by now. Needless to say, I've been busting my butt trying to do what feels like pushing a rope. I'll get 'er done but right now it is keeping me more than fully employed. I've got a couple other programs that are sitting waiting their turn for my attention and I really need to get back to them in the next week. But I've been busy enough that I haven't even had time for emailing in any posts.

The spouse and I did catch a Raptors baseball game Saturday night. It was a really nice evening even if the Raptors did leave the bases loaded twice and another inning they left two guys stranded! Yeah, sadly, they lost. Our team is actually not doing too well this year, dropping 7 of the last 8 home games and only a little better on the road. But its really good to spend a summer evening watching ball players practice their skills in a close knit ball park and we had a good time.

And I just finished my bottle of pear flavored vodka that I've been sipping on most of the summer!

Weekend Update-

What is this anyway, Saturday Night Live? It seems the only time I have for posting these days is on Sunday evenings. Some of my lack of posting is simple laziness but mostly I've benn busier than ever and when I'm not being busy, I've taken some time to just sit and relax and read a book or two.

First of all, I've not said anything about the crisis and tragedy of the mining accident down in Huntington. There's nothing I can add to everything that has already been said and if you've seen any new broadcasts over the past 2 weeks, you know the story; 6 miners trapped during a cave-in and 3 men killed while working on the rescue crew with 6 more suffering various levels of injuries. Now, after drilling 4 holes from the top of the mountain, down 1800 feet into the mine trying to locate the trapped mines, the officials are saying that the 6 trapped men may never be recovered. The mine is unstable and further digging to rescue or recover the men may just cause further collapse and injury or death of anyone trying to go into the mine shafts.

This is a terrible tragedy and the stories of the grieving families have been on our nightly news each night. My heart hurts for all of them and I wish there was some way for them to be relieved of their pain. As it is, they may not even get to bury the bodies of their loved ones.

Myself, I can't imagine working underground every day, digging coal oout of the rock. It scares the crap out of me to think of doing the work that these brave men do every day. I think its a shame that we still depend on coal for power production and I'd like to see every coal burning power plant replaced with a new, shiny nuclear powerplant so that miners like these wouldn't have to go underground.

My heart goes out to those families whose loved ones are trapped in that Huntington mine.

So what else have I been doing? I've taken the Para-Ordanance Warthog out for its first outing at the range and so far, I'm not ready to make this gun my carry gun. Like many chopped 45s, this gun has feeding problems... Grr! Its accurate and shoots where I point it and even pretty controllable for its shortened grip but it doesn't feed ammo reliably.

I shot 110 rounds through the gun. On nearly every magazine full, the last round out of the magazine fails to feed. The round comes out of the mag, gets the rim under the extractor but hangs up with the nose of the bullet against the top of the barrel hood. This hangup must have happened 8 or 9 of the 11 magazines I ran through it. Additionally, I had repeated failures to feed in the middle of the magazines where the round of ammo didn't even make it up to the bolt face but instead got hung up under the bolt as it returned to the closed position after recoiling.

There's a possibility that I was limpwristing my grip and that could be the cause of the misfeeds, but I'm not sure. I was making an effort to keep a firm grip on the gun to prevent this problem and I don't think that my grip explains why the last round in the magazine hung up so routinely. When I got home and cleaned the gun, I also discovered that the magazines had some kind of getting sticky coating on them. So I cleaned the magazines, inside and out with some solvent and applied some spray dri-film lube on the insides.

Now I've got to go back to the range and see if the sticky coating was holding up the magazine performance. I'm hopeful that the problem is solved but I'm not carrying this gun for protection until it shoots reliably.

The scooter's not working- again! Same problems as before, cutting out at high speed, not idling, dieing when the throttle is opened. I've left it sit most of the weekend because I'm mad at it. I'm either going to have to buy another carburetor for it or just keep struggling with it.

I did get the camper's awning repaired and reinstalled. The front crossbar got seriously bent when the water filled up the awning during our camping trip to Oregon. The aluminum extrusion was bent about 2 inches out of straight and by some careful bending using a couple sawhorses and the bottom of my workbench, I was able to get it nearly straight. I put new velcro on the front of the extrusion to hold the screenroom in place and I got everything put back into the storage bag and rehung on the camper.

I finished another pretty good thriller novel this morning after working on it most of this week. The book was Black Order and except for a few cheesy concepts, The SIGMA secret arm of DARPA is one of them, its a pretty good thriller. It has James Bond style thrills and secret agents and a evil bad guy with a plan to take over the world using secret technology. Its a worthy summer read and I enjoyed just sitting and reading in the shade of the carport.

I also got the overgrown weedbed in front of the house cleaned out and turned back into a flowerbed this morning. That flowerbed gets overgrown so fast its just remarkable.

What else? No movies this weekend. I did go visit Darren's 3rd scooter and ATV store, down in Bountiful on Saturday, tried to find a new face shield for my helmet as mine got damaged the other day and I'm still looking to purchase a fishing pole before this next weekend so I can go fishing with Kenny.

The job has been very hectic lately and shows no sign of relaxing in the near future. Last week I gave 4 briefings on 2 different programs and prepared charts to brief a 3rd program next week. So blogging from the job has become almost impossible as I try to keep all my programs moving forward and getting accomplished.

And now, its 10PM and time for me to get my shower- except I still have clothes to fold nd put away so I can find them when I need to get dressed for work, starting tomorrow morning.

Scooter struggles-

I've spent several evenings last week and most of the weekend struggling with my scoot. It had become unreliable at idle, stalling at traffic lights and bogging down when trying to accelerate from idle. This problem was really an issue since I commute through a busy part of town everyday and sitting at traffic lights is a regular part of my commute.

I blamed it on the carburetor and I've had it on and off the engine a dozen times in the past week. The problem seemed to be that it would start, run, idle and rev up properly until the engine warmed up. Then the rough idle and bogging would return after 10 or 12 or 15 minutes of running. But once revved up, the engine ran beautifully and it seemed to have all the power it is supposed to have.

I adjusted the valves. I changed pilot jets richer and leaner, I tried 2 other carburetors, all to no avail. Once I figured out that the problem remained even with a different carburetor installed, I about ruled out a fuel problem entirely.

Now I've got a new coil to install tomorrow night. Darren at Quad & Cycle suggested that the coils can be squirrely and unreliable and heat sensitive. Alan at PowerSportsFactory suggested the same thing through an email today.

So I guess I'll try a new coil and see if that solves my bogging and stalling problem. But its too late tonight.

Another Phantom scooter post...

Actually, I haven't made a scooter post in quite a long while and I suppose that's a result of the scooter soldiering along without any apparent resentment to that oversized interloper of a Suzuki that it has been forced to share its parking space with. Its been fine really though I've been kind of slow this spring in getting it ridden regularly. It does have a small intake manifold leak that disrupts its perfect operation and the intake manifold rubber boot is cracking, so I've ordered a replacement just this morning. But its rideable until the new one arrives and then I'll just take it apart once. Last weekend I removed the 2nd failed vacuum operated fuel shutoff valve and I replaced it with a lawnmower 1/4 turn shut off valve.

Everything was great, actually, until lunch time just a few minutes ago. I was on my way to the credit union and just as I pulled away from a stop sign, the muffler fell off! Fell right off- departed the vehicle, so to speak! I was already on my way across the intersection so I had to cross, park and go back for my left-behind parts. Which was hot, BTW. Good thing I had my gloves. Anyway, one of the two muffler attach mounts on the swingarm broke off at the weld, which upon inspection had been mostly cracked through for quite some time. One end of the muffler bracket that attaches to the other mount point also broke off. I was able, after it cooled a little bit, to get the muffler bungee corded to my luggage rack and continue on my way.

But what a racket it makes with nothing but the header pipe diverting the exhaust gasses! Yowser its loud! If you've ever been around Triumph or BSA flattracker motorcycles, you'll have some idea about the tone and volume of this noisy beast. Its rather embarrassing for an old guy like me.

So, I think I have a 2nd muffler bracket in my box of spares. I hope I still have a spare. The swingarm and muffler attach point stub will require welding by somebody more competent than me and then everything should fit back together. I suppose getting it all patched up is going to take a day or so before I'm back on scooter wheels again.

Right now I'm just hoping I can sneak home today without drawing the ire of any local law enforcement types who think I need an excess noise ticket...

UPDATE: The scooter's fixed! I brought it home tonight and removed the swingarm and took it down to Darren's shop, Quad & Cycle. Darren and his mechanic did a great job of rewelding the broken off muffler mount. I brought it home, gave it a shot of paint and after dinner, put everything back together. I also installed a new spark plug, a fancy irridium tipped model that is supposed to be wonderful. But it was $9! Nine bucks for a spark plug? It better be wonderful!

Ok, I'm jealous!

Through an interesting turn of events and internet connectivity, after first remarking in the Thursday Three post that I'd love to spend a day with Mario Andretti and to see what's in his garage, and later, emailing my occasional scooter part connection, Alan Leson from PowerSportsFactory, today, via email I received some really interesting photos that involve both of these guys.

Before I post the pictures, I'm going to get permission, but until then I can give you just a little teaser- I now know at least a little bit of what's in Mario's garage! [UPDATE- no pictures for now.]

The Suzuki is for sale-

As I alluded to in a previous post, I'm putting the Suzuki up for sale. I listed it on KSL tonight.

What's wrong with it? Not a thing! Its perfect really but its just not right for me. Its big and heavy, much heavier than my scooter obviously and its just really more motorcycle than I need. Mostly I commute to and from work and I run my local errands on two wheels whenever possible. I'd like to be able to get out on the highway when I want to go a little further but the fact is, I'm not going touring multiple states or going street racing late on Saturday nights. So its more motorcycle than I really need.

Commuting on the scooter is more pleasant than the Suzuki, just because of its lighter weight and storage capability. The automatic transmission on the scooter makes the stop and go riding much easier as well.

So, I put it up for sale. If I don't get some interest locally, I'll put it on Ebay in a few days. And then, if I sell it, I'll look for something to replace it that's more in keeping with my riding needs.

New scooter link added to blogroll

I've added a new link today for a great scooter website, LetsGoScootIN. The play on punctuation and capitalization is because the one-man content provider, Dennis DenHartog is from Indiana. In spite of having a real-life day job selling and making dulcimers, Dennis has really put together a comprehensive and interesting scooter website.

I first met up with Dennis through the Scoot Dawg Forum which is also linked over there on the blogroll. I had sent him an email after noticing that we shared several interests, scooters, dulcimers and a common home town, Ft Wayne, Indiana. Well, Dennis wrote me back one Friday afternoon and suggested that I must have been "one of Roger's kids"! What? It had been lots of years since anybody called me that! Turns out Dennis and my family all attended the same church years ago and Dennis had even been a guest in our house! It is a small world.

Anyway, Dennis has been busy building a terrific website and I'm adding it to my blog's scooter website list. Thanks Dennis!